Missouri lawmakers return to the Capitol Wednesday to decide whether they should override any of Gov. Jay Nixon's vetoes of 20 bills the Legislature passed last spring.
Nixon told reporters last week he vetoes a bill only after thoroughly reviewing its language and deciding whether the proposed law advances good public policies for the state.
The governor, a Democrat, urged the Republican-controlled Legislature to uphold his vetoes and keep those bills from becoming law.
The Missouri Constitution requires a two-thirds vote in each chamber to override a governor's veto - 109 votes in the House and 23 in the Senate. And Republicans have veto-proof majorities in each chamber - 114 in the House and 24 in the Senate. So, a straight party-line vote on any override attempt would result in an override, if everybody votes.
Sponsors of several of the vetoed bills already have said they will ask for overrides to put those measures into the lawbooks in spite of Nixon's rejections.
Among them are:
Voter photo ID, HB 1631
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jason Alferman, R-Hermann, and championed in the state Senate by Will Kraus, R-Lee's Summit.
Photo ID was a major part of both Kraus' and Jay Ashcroft's campaigns for secretary of state this summer, a campaign which Ashcroft won in the Aug. 2 primary.
The bill would require voters to have specified kinds of photo identification when they vote in-person at their polling place on election day - including a Missouri driver's or non-driver's license but not including an out-of-state driver's license or college ID.
Even if lawmakers override Nixon's veto, the law can't go into effect unless Missouri voters also adopt a proposed constitutional amendment that allows the Legislature to require the IDs.
The amendment was proposed because in 2006 Missouri's Supreme Court overturned a similar voter photo ID bill as being unconstitutional.
"People expect integrity in their elections, and an election does not go by without accusations of some type of election fraud," Kraus said in a news release last Wednesday, issued after Nixon urged lawmakers to uphold his veto. "With election fraud possibly occurring in every other aspect of elections, it is hard to believe voter impersonation fraud is somehow non-existent, but there happens to be no real mechanism to be sure."
However, Nixon told reporters last Wednesday: "I've always been in favor of involving more people in voting, and putting up barriers to keep them from voting I don't think is a good idea. I just don't believe that (law)'s going to solve the problem - and the problem they say they're solving, they don't have any specific examples of that problem ever occurring in the state.
"What that is is an attempt to make it more difficult for people who are poor, disabled, and in certain challenged communities of our state, to make it harder for them to vote."
Concealed carry regulations, SB 656
For a number of years, Missouri has allowed people to carry concealed weapons - if they pay a fee, pass a background check and pass a training course.
"I've signed bills to expand the rights of law-abiding Missourians to carry concealed and am always willing to consider ways to further improve that CCW process," the governor explained.
"But I cannot support the extreme step of throwing out that process entirely - eliminating sensible protections like training requirements and background checks and taking away the ability of sheriffs to protect their communities."
State Sen. Brian Munzlinger, R-Williamstown and the bill's sponsor, said in a June news release after Nixon's veto: "In an era when we see radical Islamic terrorists shifting their focus to attacks on targets such as employee Christmas parties in San Bernardino or nightclubs in Orlando, we should be doing all we can to make sure the citizens of Missouri have the ability to protect themselves.
"It is hard to believe our governor would veto a bill that gives Missourians the ability to protect themselves."
Extra-long trucks, HB 1733
The proposed law makes a number of changes to vehicle regulations.
But Nixon last week focused on a provision that allows "a connected vehicle technology testing program that uses networked wireless communication among vehicles, infrastructure or communications devices."
He told reporters the bill "would allow automated long-haul trucks to travel in pairs - 180-feet long, pairs of trucks out on I-70. 60 yards long. With one driver."
The governor said the idea involves "unproven" technology, "so Missouri highways would be the testing grounds, and other drivers the guinea pigs" in possibly unsafe conditions.
Sponsor Charlie Davis, R-Webb City, told the Missourinet earlier this month he disagrees with Nixon on the trucks issue, but wants the bill overridden because it also allows MoDOT vehicles to add red and blue lights to their work vehicles.
Nixon said those colors indicate law enforcement, while yellow and white lights on MoDOT's vehicles should be enough to tell drivers to be careful in a work or emergency zone.
Service contract changes, HB 2030
In 2007, a state contractor (who cleaned state buildings in Jefferson City, among other things) was accused of hiring illegal workers, and a number of those workers were arrested one night in a federal-state law enforcement sweep of several state office buildings.
In 2008, lawmakers passed and then-Gov. Matt Blunt signed a bill requiring companies seeking state contracts or tax credits to use the free federal E-Verify system to check their employees' work status.
Nixon said last week the existing law "is a common sense measure to prevent the use of illegal workers by those Missouri businesses," while the proposed new law "would get rid of that ironclad protection of E-Verify, that saves taxpayer dollars."
But supporters call the proposal the Big Government Get Off My Back Act, because it reduces a number of government fees and other regulatory hindrances, as well as the E-Verify requirement in some cases.
Sponsor Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, told CBS in July Nixon's decision to veto the bill shows a "lack of commitment to small businesses."
Hoskins added: "E-Verify isn't meant to be the sole verification tool in an employer's arsenal."
Related article: